Once again the alarm woke me up just before 4am, but thankfully this time it was preceded by a solid night of sleep! No freight trains, no bright lights, and the temperature finally got down to 80 degrees, outside the tent.
One observation that almost everyone has made at RAGBRAI: though there are "official" mileage counts for each day, they fall quite short of reality, I'm guessing because they measure from town line to town line, rather than from camp area to camp area. As well, we usually end up riding 5-10 additional miles to down town for food each day.Having said that, a realistic estimate of our mileage thus far is 400, not including the prologue. With that kind of estimate, we'll most likely roll over 600 miles when all is said and done.
The ride today started off slow, with a trail of blinkies illuminating the otherwise dark morning route. As the first miles passed us by and we slowly started waking up, we got a great sunrise and of course, mile and miles of corn. After 65 miles of corn and soy fields we finally hit some rolling hills, and I acted like a child. i would tuck and go aero before bottoming out and the sprint up the inclines, leaving those behind me to wonder why I would waste such valuable energy. The ride ended at the 80 mile marker, around 10:30am, and we even managed to get into town before the porto potties were set up......uhhhhg!
Well, tonight we get a treat. Conrad's parents live in our overnight town, so we'll stay with them in an air conditioned house with laundry and a home cooked meal. Alaskan halibut and steak, ice cream and strawberries, Iowa corn and potato salad! Annnnnnnd, it's windy, rainy and thundering outside of my bedroom window. What a treat to have a break from RAGBRAI for a night!
Pics to come soon.
Chris, from the road
One observation that almost everyone has made at RAGBRAI: though there are "official" mileage counts for each day, they fall quite short of reality, I'm guessing because they measure from town line to town line, rather than from camp area to camp area. As well, we usually end up riding 5-10 additional miles to down town for food each day.Having said that, a realistic estimate of our mileage thus far is 400, not including the prologue. With that kind of estimate, we'll most likely roll over 600 miles when all is said and done.
The ride today started off slow, with a trail of blinkies illuminating the otherwise dark morning route. As the first miles passed us by and we slowly started waking up, we got a great sunrise and of course, mile and miles of corn. After 65 miles of corn and soy fields we finally hit some rolling hills, and I acted like a child. i would tuck and go aero before bottoming out and the sprint up the inclines, leaving those behind me to wonder why I would waste such valuable energy. The ride ended at the 80 mile marker, around 10:30am, and we even managed to get into town before the porto potties were set up......uhhhhg!
Well, tonight we get a treat. Conrad's parents live in our overnight town, so we'll stay with them in an air conditioned house with laundry and a home cooked meal. Alaskan halibut and steak, ice cream and strawberries, Iowa corn and potato salad! Annnnnnnd, it's windy, rainy and thundering outside of my bedroom window. What a treat to have a break from RAGBRAI for a night!
Pics to come soon.
Chris, from the road
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